History

Over 150 years of family tradition and excellence

Established in 1856 by a local farmer, Thomas Altham, who opened the family's first butcher's shop in Poulton-le-sands, now known as Morecambe.

Our story is one of family values and good, honest hard work that sees us provide consistently excellent meat products.

1826

Thomas Altham (1826 – 1912)

Founder in 1856. Lived at Mewith Hall Farm, Bentham. Married three times and had nine children. Thomas set up the business when Morecambe was but a fishing village. Back then, the family shop on Queen Street faced the sea and was surrounded by green fields.

In 1899, Thomas decided to establish another branch, a hut on wheels pulled by four cart horses. Thomas turned his attention to farming and left the business to his son, John Carr Altham.

Queen Street

The first Altham's shop opens.

1867

John Carr Altham (1867 – 1904)

Married Isabella Raby of Park Farm and had three children. He played rugby for Morecambe and was nicknamed "War Horse". Tragically died in 1904, left a widow and his three children all under six years old.

A gambler and alcoholic, he left the business in a great deal of debt. He sold meat to the Heysham Harbour Townships (nicknamed Clondike and Dawson City) manned by Irish Navies. Money collected was spent in the Strawberry Gardens on his way back to Morecambe.

Mrs J C Altham (1868 – 1952)

A woman of substance. Left a widow in 1904 by John Carr Altham, with three children all under six years old. No banks in the area would lend a woman money. A good friend in Ireland lent her the money to get the business back on its feet.

With hard work and her acumen and tenacity, the business flourished. To make extra money, the children slept in the cellar and all of the bedrooms above the shop were used for Bed and Breakfast.

Hard work, she always said, never hurt anyone. Her spirit and determination were unquenchable. She did not tolerate slackers in her business. She often found that errand boys were too slow and was determined to find a fast one. She organised a race on pedal bikes along the promenade. The first one back to the pier received a cup and a job in the butcher's shop! Her motto to her staff: "Pull hard my lads. We'll win the day"

Thomas Altham (1898 – 1974)

As a young boy he travelled the markets of Scotland buying cattle and sheep. Worked mainly in the Regent Street shop. He bought Morecambe Bank Farm in 1943 where he reared sheep and cattle which were sent to an abattoir owned by Althams in Morecambe.

Cattle and sheep were bought by Thomas over in Ireland and transported by sea to Heysham. He was a J.P. and civil commissioner for the Inland Revenue.

Three More Shops Open

Thomas Carr Altham

My first job when I left school (aged 15) was slaughtering lambs, pigs, & cattle that came over from Ireland to Heysham harbour by boat and were not fit to travel onwards by train.

We would kill 200 lambs on a Sunday morning! I worked at our Regent Road shop with my father Thomas before taking over our main shop at Queen Street.

I would travel to Ireland with my dad at 15 and then after on my own. We would buy at markets and fares then at night from farms in the north. Then we would see all the cattle shipped from Belfast to Heysham, most of which would have been slaughtered at our abattoir on Shola Green Lane. It was during these years were my love for farming started. One of my early birthday presents from my father was a ‘sow in pig’, it was my first lesson on how to turn an animal into money! In those days our Christmas turkeys were collected on an open back truck from Penrith and brought to Morecambe for the window display in Queen Street!

I was always involved in farming first at Morecambe Bank Farm, next door to where the lads now purchase the Morecambe Bay Salt Marsh lamb from, then at Beck House Farm, Borwick and then later to the Helks Farm, Kellet, Tewitfield Farm near Carnforth, and now aged 71 I'm still farming at Mill Bank Farm, Kirkby Lonsdale breeding pedigree limousine cattle. With leaving the business in the safe hands of my sons I have been lucky enough to enjoy my farming full time over the last decade, with some of my livestock finding its way back through the butchery business over the past few years.

Val Altham

Born in Kendal, Westmorland, now known as a Cumbria. My contacts throughout the area provided an excellent base for when I started working with Thomas.

I trained as an accountant I brought structure to the business, as Thomas concentrated on the butchery and farming. We saw the opportunity for the supply of meat to the Lake District hotels and surrounding area and by introducing a strategic development plan of achieving business growth we started to improve and make it stronger, in turn leaving the foundations of a successful family business for my sons and future generations with my personal touch and hands on approach.

James Altham

I became a director in 1993 after spending a childhood working in our farms and the butchery business and joined the butchery business full time in 1994.

I became Managing Director in 2000 after our father decided to dedicate more time to his farms. Since then through dedication and hard work we have grown the business from a regional supplier in the North West and surrounding counties to one of the largest independent family owned and run butchery businesses in the UK, with a distribution network capable of covering the country.

We achieved this by investing in our site, our team, making the most of IT and the excellent regional meat the UK has to offer. Quality is of utmost importance and together with our service levels and innovation have created a butchers which can only be regarded as high class and state of the art, something which is a credit to each generation, we all have left our marks on the development and growth, from my parents Thomas and Val, who first recognised the potential of the catering trade to the founder The Late Late Thomas Altham and with the 6th generation in training we will only continue.

Richard Altham

At the young age of 17, I began working at Althams Factory in Morecambe on the shop floor. A number of the team I work alongside today were present on my first day in the family business and I have learned some great skills from them.

Things were very different then all the order processing was done by hand with a notepad and pen. Within 12 months i decided to return to the heart of the farming Industry to improve on the knowledge I already had from my childhood. I spent nearly all my weekends and school holidays farming here is where my heart lay. I worked with my father Thomas Altham on our family farms rearing a range of cattle and sheep for a number of years. As a result of this I was lucky enough to learn the whole process of farming from calving and lambing to rearing, fattening, slaughtering, butchering and finally the reason we are in this industry - eating them!

I returned to the butchery business full time as Operations Director in my early twenties. At this stage we worked up to 18 hour days learning how the business ran in every department. From here on in we have driven the company in one direction only and with the continuous help and valued support of every team player we have managed to get where we are today.